Gustave Eiffel

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Alexandre Gustave Eiffel
Born December 15, 1832(1832-12-15)
Dijon, Côte-d'Or, France
Died December 27, 1923(1923-12-27) (aged 91)
Rue Rabelais in Paris
Nationality French
Signature
Work
Significant projects Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel play /ˈaɪfəl/ French pronunciation: [efɛl])(December 15, 1832 – December 27, 1923), was a French civil engineer and architect. A graduate of the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit Viaduct. He is best known for the world-famous Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, France. After his retirement Eiffel concentrated his energies on research into meteorology and aerodynamics, making important contributions in both fields.

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[edit] Early life

Gustave Eiffel was born in Dijon, in the Côte-d'Or department of France, the first child of Alexandre and Catherine Eiffel. The family was originally from Germany, being descended from Jean –Rene Bönickhausen, who emigrated from Marmagen and settled in Paris at the beginning of the eighteenth century.[1] The family adopted the name Eiffel as a reference to the Eifel mountains in the region from which it had come. Although the family always used the name Eiffel, Gustave's name was registered at birth as Bönickhausen,[2] and was not formally changed to Eiffel until 1879.[3]

During his youth, the two strongest influences on Eiffel were two successful chemists, his uncles Jean-Baptiste Mollerat and Michel Perret. Both men spent a lot of time with the young Eiffel, teaching him everything from chemistry and mining to religion and philosophy. Eiffel was extremely clever, but not very studious. While attending high school at Lycée Royal, Eiffel felt that the classes were a waste of time. It was not until his last two years that Eiffel began to study seriously, and he gained his baccalauréats in humanities and science.[4]. Eiffel went on to attend the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris, in order to prepare for the difficult entrance exams set by the most prestigious engineering institutions in France. Ultimately, Eiffel attended the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris where he studied chemistry, receiving the equivalent of a Master of Science degree in 1855. The École Centrale was a liberal private school that is now known as one of the top engineering schools in Europe. His mother's coal business provided ample income for the family and provided the funds for Gustave to receive his university education. 1855 was the year that Paris hosted the first World's Fair.[5]

[edit] Engineering career

After graduation, Eiffel's uncle offered him a job at his vinegar works in Dijon, France. However, a family dispute removed that opportunity. Eiffel then approached the railway engineerCharles Nepveu, who gave Eiffel his first job as his private secretary.[6] However shortly afterwards Nepveu's company went bankupt, but Nepveu found Eiffel a job with the Compagnie des Chemins de fer de l'Ouest. Some of Nepveu's businesses were then acquired by Pauwels, a Belgian railway company, and Nepvau was appointed the managing director of the two factories in Paris, and offered Eifel a job a head of the research department. In 1857 Nepveu negociated a contract to build the Bordeax Bridge, and put Eiffel in charge of the project. Nepveu saw the work that Eiffel performed on site, and continued to provide him with other positions that involved the project management of railway bridges and structures. During these projects, Eiffel met other engineers who recommended him to work on other developments.

The Eiffel Tower at sunrise
Cathedral "Saint Mark of Arica" in Chile

In 1866 Eiffel set up his own business, with workshops at 48 Rue Fouquet in Levallois-Perret.[7] His first important commission was for two viaducts for the railway line between Lyons and Bordeaux. Eiffel et Cie., Eiffel's consulting and construction firm also designed La Ruche in Paris. This, like the Eiffel Tower, became a city landmark. It is a three-storey circular structure that looks like a large beehive and was created as a temporary structure for use as a wine rotunda at the Great Exposition of 1900. (La Ruche is "the beehive" in French. He also constructed the Garabit viaduct, a railway bridge near Ruynes en Margeride in the Cantal département. In the Americas, Eiffel designed the central railway station in Santiago de Chile (1897) and the Mona Island Light located near Puerto Rico. The lighthouse was built around 1900 by the United States which acquired the island after the end of the Spanish-American War. It was decommissioned in 1976.[8]

In 1887, Eiffel became involved with the French effort to construct a Panama Canal. The French Panama Canal Company, led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, had been attempting to build a sea-level canal, but came to the realisation that this was impractical. An elevated, lock-based canal was subsequently chosen, and Eiffel was enlisted to design and build the locks. The entire canal project suffered from mismanagement, and collapsed with enormous losses. Eiffel's reputation suffered a severe setback when he was implicated in the financial scandals surrounding de Lesseps and the entrepreneurs backing the project. Eiffel himself had no connection with the finances, and his guilty judgment was later reversed.[9] However, his work was never realised, as the later American-built canal used new lock designs (see History of the Panama Canal).

After retirement he researched and developed new ideas through practical use of the Eiffel Tower. The tower enabled him to make advancements in aerodynamics, meteorology, and radio-broadcasting. He built a wind tunnel at the base of the tower for his aerodynamic research, had meteorological equipment placed in various locations on the tower, and suggested that the military install radio equipment atop the tower. In the following years it continued to serve as a permanent radio tower, and eventually for television broadcasting.[10] Eiffel died on December 27, 1923, listening to Beethoven's 5th. symphony andante, in his mansion on Rue Rabelais in Paris, France. He was interred in the Cimetière de Levallois-Perret.

Gustave Eiffel was known to travel to destinations like Spain, Portugal, Latin America, the Philippines,etc., designing buildings and other structures during his visits.

Statue of Gustave Eiffel on top of Eiffel tower, Paris

[edit] Impact

 This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2008)
Interior structural elements of the Statue of Liberty designed by Gustave Eiffel.
Edward Moran's 1886 painting, The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, depicts the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty.

The Industrial Revolution played an important role in Gustave Eiffel's life. People were traveling across the world, new technologies and materials became available, and countries were industrializing. A lot of Eiffel's work was affected by one or more of these conditions brought by the Industrial Revolution.

The condition that had the most impact on Eiffel's work was transportation. People around the world were demanding safe passages across rivers and were in need of bridges. Building these bridges is how Eiffel gained a reputation as an engineer, which allowed him to pursue larger and more difficult projects later in life. The bridges that he designed were constructed all over the world. The bridges allowed for easier and faster travel and trade in the geographical area in which they were constructed. Many of Eiffel's bridges did not require skilled workers for assembly, which made his bridges economical to construct.

The Eiffel Tower had a huge impact on France. The tower was the focal point of the 1899 Exposition Universelle which drew millions of people to Paris. Nearly two million people visited the Eiffel Tower in 1889 alone. The tower quickly became a tourist attraction and brought large amounts of money into France's economy. After originally being thought of as an eyesore (it was actually designed to be torn down easily after the end of the Exposition), the tower quickly became a national symbol of France and brought a sense of pride to the people who live there. In 1910 Gustave Eiffel accomplished extraordinary outcomes in determining the wind resistance of a flat plate; Gustave used the Eiffel Tower as his test platform.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the United States. Eiffel's design for the interior structural elements of the statue allowed for the statue to become a reality. The statue showed the friendship and respect that was shared between France and the United States. The Statue of Liberty quickly became a national symbol of freedom in the United States and gave citizens a sense of pride. The statue became a great tourist attraction. and brought many people to New York, boosting the economy. Several Americans living in France were pleased by the gift to their country and in turn, built a ¼ scale bronze model which stands on the downstream end of the Île aux Cygnes, 1.4 km southwest of the Eiffel Tower.

With all the opportunities the Industrial Revolution brought with it, it also had many challenges. Just as Eiffel had the opportunity to work on more projects in different locations, so did other engineers. Competition for projects was extremely high and the reputation of the engineer played a major role for obtaining projects. Yet another challenge during Eiffel's career was the introduction of new construction materials. Since the new materials had not been proven in projects, engineers took a risk in using them. Many of the bridges Eiffel had built were made from steel which Eiffel had helped pioneer. Some of his advancements included: designing a system of hydraulic presses which allowed workers to set bridge foundations deep under water, creating strong but lightweight "web-like" trusses and arches to withstand high winds, using wrought iron for bridge construction because its flexibility could withstand high winds, curving the edges of piers to create more stable bases, and the development of "launching" which is a way to more easily move pieces of structures into place. Eiffel's ingenuity and brilliance allowed him to design and build some of the world's most famous structures.

Less well known to the general public, Gustave Eiffel was a pioneer in the science of meteorology and made major contributions to the theory of aerodynamics, the two fields to which he devoted the last 20 years of his life. Eiffel had already used his tower for studies on free fall. In 1909, he built his first wind tunnel on the Champ-de-Mars, it was here that the airfoil sections used by Wright, Voisin, Farman and Bleriot were investigated, and tests were also made on scale models of aircraft designed by designers including Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Edouard Nieuport and Leon Levavasseur. In 1912, Eiffel built and financed a larger wind tunnel in Auteuil, in the suburbs of Paris. This laboratory has since been used for tests in aerodynamics for cars, constructions, boats or bridges.[11]

[edit] Buildings and structures

Cathedral of San Pedro de Tacna, Peru.
The "Grand Hotel Traian" from Iaşi, is Gustave Eiffel's link to Romania
Konak Pier in İzmir, Turkey, designed by Gustave Eiffel

[edit] Bridges

Truong Tien Bridge
Eiffel bridge in Caminha

[edit] Other works

La Paz Bus Station

[edit] Not Proved

[edit] Unrealized projects

[edit] Protection of Gustave Eiffel's heritage

A number of works of Gustave Eiffel are in danger today. Some have already been destroyed, like in Vietnam. A proposal to demolish the railway bridge of Bordeaux (also known as the "passerelle St Jean"), the first major work of Gustave Eiffel, resulted in a large respose from the public. Actions to protect the bridge were taken as early as 2002 by the "Association of the Descendants of Gustave Eiffel",[12] joined from 2005 onwards by the Association "Sauvons la Passerelle Eiffel" (Save the Eiffel Bridge). They led, in 2010, to the decision to list Eiffel's Bordeaux bridge as a French Historical Monument.[13]

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gustave Eiffel
  1. ^ Loyrette 1985, p.21
  2. ^ État-civil de la Côte-d'Or, Dijon, Registres d'état civil 1832, p. 249
  3. ^ Marsden, Walter (1973). The Rhineland. Hastings House. p. 36. ISBN 9780803820708. http://books.google.com/books?id=G26N6aGzPdsC&pg=PA36&lpg=PA36&dq=gustave+eiffel+bonickhausen. Retrieved March 1, 2011. 
  4. ^ Loyrette 1985, p.25
  5. ^ "Gustave Eiffel: The Man Behind the Masterpiece" Retrieved April 1, 2007.
  6. ^ Loyrette 1985, p.30
  7. ^ Loyrette 1985, p. 37
  8. ^ Mona Island Lighthouse, from Lighthouse Digest. Retrieved April 17, 2006.
  9. ^ Gustave Eiffel, from the official site of the Eiffel Tower. Retrieved April 17, 2006.
  10. ^ "Gustave Eiffel". Retrieved April 1, 2007.
  11. ^ site Presentation of the Laboratories Eiffel by André Granet (in French).
  12. ^ http://www.gustaveeiffel.com
  13. ^ site ADGE news bulletin (in French)

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Related

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